| Dec 14, 2020
Halfway up a mountain in Chiang Mai’s rugged Pong Yaeng district, Varisa Singhamany had run out of food and water. The punishing jungle heat had reached its mid-afternoon peak, the sunlight burning bright through the bamboo and pines, baking everything between the scrub and the sky. She wasn’t sure she was going to make it.
Varisa was in the middle of a 44k trail race, the furthest she had ever run at the time. She would have to push herself to her breaking point for another hour just to reach an aid station. There, she could refill her water bottles, grab some bananas, and either rest or drop out of the race if her health was in jeopardy. Her legs, her lungs, her body begged her to stop, but she continued.